The Vital Library

I'm a Shover and Maker and so are you!

2009-04-23T10:37:00.002-05:00

I'm a Shover and Maker! Check out all the other winners at The Library Society of the World's Shovers & Makers.

The Cult of Done Manifesto

2009-04-01T12:07:00.004-05:00

I've become quite fond of The Cult of Done Manifesto created by Bre Pettis and Kio Starr. I decided there needed to be a color version, though, so here it is.

Librarian Heroes!

2008-08-09T17:10:00.003-05:00

Created with Hero Machine 2.5.

See more Librarian Superheroes here on Flickr.

Shelving of Doom

2008-07-13T09:40:00.002-05:00

For years now, I've had the notion that someone should write a murder mystery in which the implement of death is compact shelving. A quick check of YouTube reveals that I'm not the only one who is fascinated by it.

Short and sweet.

This one is a bit long and could have used some editing, but is still amusing.

Finally, here is a less scary take on compact shelving.

The Compassionate Community

2008-07-05T14:47:00.003-05:00

I've been ruminating about InfoSciPhi's recent and moving post about suffering and compassion. I very much respect and admire his forthrightness and honesty in talking about both his difficult experiences with his family members and what he has learned from them. InfoSciPhi's stories about his brothers have sparked some amazing dialogues on Twitter and FriendFeed, in which people express their support and empathy for him and his family.

During the past couple of weeks, others in my online communities have disclosed similar struggles. In one case, the recent suicide of a family member. In another, a child's attempted suicide. I have participated in several thoughtful and meaningful discussions about how mental illness directly effects each of us with folks in the LSW Meebo Room. I am reminded that suffering and mental illness is part of all of our lives, even those folks who seem so very together, professional and well-adjusted. In two days, it will be the thirteenth anniversary of my brother's suicide. For several years prior to his death, we had witnessed with horror and shock as John lost bits and pieces of himself to schizophrenia. While I still feel a painful ache, like a missing limb, I am no longer quite so angry with him. Time has changed my experience of loss.

As InfoSciPhi says, each of us can choose how we respond to traumatic events that are beyond our control. I am proud and moved that my peeps in Libraryland have responded to him with kindness and compassion.

The Twitter vs. FriendFeed Smackdown

2008-07-05T13:56:00.004-05:00

I've recently migrated from using Twitter on a regular basis to instead trying FriendFeed. FriendFeed (FF) is a social networking application that allows one to follow specific people's posts from up to forty one applications, Web sites and services. It also allows one to post directly on the FF site. Why this defection, you ask? Because, as Tinfoil + Raccoon so eloquently expressed the other day, Twitter has been so full of fail recently that it's been breakin' my heart. I mean, what kind of application lures me in with promises of constant connectivity and cracklike social networking capabilities and then is broken in one way or another for weeks at a time? I don't like being taken for granted as a user. These days, we have enough viable choices that if an app is frequently broken or hard to use, people will leave it (we in Libraryland should know this better than most, right?). And so, even though today Twitter is functioning perfectly, it is with great reluctance and and a heavy heart that I follow my libr* peeps over to FriendFeed.

Here are some of my initial thoughts about FriendFeed:

I love that it keeps discussion threads together, which makes them very easy to follow.
I enjoy seeing which posts get rated favorably with "like".
Some folks are taking advantage of FriendFeed's aggregation functionalities to display their posts from Flickr, del.icio.us, Pandora, their blogs, and more. While I for some reason feel reluctant to aggregate my entire online life in one place, it is kind of interesting and handy to see other people's stuff all in one place.
FriendFeed also allows one to create rooms (such as the LSW room) that allow one to easily share posts with a specific group of people. This kind of room doesn't facilitate the social chattiness of a meebo room, but it still could be useful for asynchronous communication.
I loved being able to direct message people via Twitter when I wanted to say something to a specific person more privately, so I'm disappointed that FF doesn't have this feature.
FF makes it very easy to post links, especially since there is no 140 character restriction.

Presently, my loyalties remain divided. Time will tell whether Twitter can win me back or whether FriendFeed will ultimately triumph.

A window inside my mind

2008-06-21T09:00:00.006-05:00

Want to peek into my mind? I've used Wordle to create a lovely tag cloud from my del.icio.us account.

One thing I don't like about Wordle: I don't see an easy way to export or save the image of the tag cloud.

Midwest Library Technology Conference

2008-06-03T22:29:00.004-05:00

Last week, I went to the very first Midwest Library Technology Conference, held in St. Paul, MN. The first day consisted of two plenary sessions plus shorter, thematic presentations. On the second day, we participated in longer, more in-depth, hands-on sessions. Thanks to all the planning committee members who made this event manifest.

A few conference highlights:

Blessed, glorious, free, easily accessible wireless in all conference facilities! I couldn't be more excited about this (especially after not having access to free wireless at the Medical Library Association Annual Meeting in Chicago this year). The planning committee gets an extra special, very shiny gold star for this.
Hanging with both my online peeps and my work peeps, plus meeting new peeps! Yay! The conference was a fine venue for professional networking.
The hands-on sessions on Friday were an admirable experiment. While a couple of the sessions were a bit large for hands-on work, it was nice to be able to get in there and try some stuff.
The Ning conference site provides a place for presenters to post their slides, handouts, links and other supporting materials. It also provides a forum for attendees to interact with each other. It will be interesting to see to what extent folks participate in the social networking aspects of this site.
I liked the thought provoking usability session with Dorothea Salo very much. We got a tiny taste of what usability testing is like, presented in an engaging, interactive manner.
Plenary sessions with John Riedl, Professor of Computer Science at the University of Minnesota and Rachel S. Smith and Alan Levine of the New Media Consortium (producers of the Horizon Report), all of whom talked about the future of the interactive, collaborative Web. Please note that these keynote speakers were not libraryfolk, which I found strangely refreshing.

Ideas for next year:

Many of the sessions were at the 101 level, which is fine, but there also need to be some more advanced sessions for those of us who already know the basics.
In-depth session about using content management systems (CMS) to create library Web sites. Perhaps a Drupal vs. Joomla Smackdown? Or, a comparison between using Drupal vs. a homegrown CMS?
How about a hands-on session about planning technology initiatives &/or project management? I hereby nominate my LSW buddy Tim Keneipp to teach this session.
I would love to attend a longer, hands-on, more substantive session about designing lesson plans that incorporate clicker technology (aka audience response systems) into library instruction.
Folks from the University of Minnesota Libraries could present on creating home grown databases, such as HarvestChoice and EthicShare.
Online social networking tools are fabulous for professional networking in Libraryland. I would be happy to offer an introductory presentation on this. :-)
While I appreciated and enjoyed the session about AskMN - the new, statewide virtual reference service in Minnesota - fifteen minutes was too brief for me, especially since the University Libraries are in the process of evaluating and possibly implementing this servce. Next year's conference would be a good opportunity for current AskMN libraries and potential AskMN libraries to get together and discuss the project.
Last, but not least: more coffee, more of the time! In my book, there's nothing uglier than a bunch of undercaffeinated librarians.

These are, of course, just my initial thoughts about the conference, but I promised Iris that I would get something down in writing before to much time passed. Were you there? I welcome your comments.

What should I do this summer?

2008-05-31T11:18:00.019-05:00

Boy, howdy, was May a busy month. A good month, but very, very busy. Let's pause for a moment to take stock:

Participated in major weeding of the print reference section at my library, the first time this had been done in any kind of comprehensive way in many years.
Graduated from the College of St. Catherine/Dominican University MLIS program. W00t!
Presented my Extreme Googling: Tips & Tricks for Expert Searching workshop at a family medicine conference at the medical school and at Enhancing Quality Staff.
Presented my poster Why Wufoo? Collecting Data About Reference Transactions Using an Online Form Builder at the Medical Library Association (MLA) Annual Meeting.
Attended the MLA Annual Meeting in Chicago.
Attended WisCon in Madison, WI for the very first time!
Also attended the Midwest Library Technology Conference here in St. Paul.

So, for me, May was a very busy and momentous month. Now that I've had 24 hours to catch my breath, however, I already find myself thinking ahead to what I want to accomplish this summer. I fear this will be a very long list, but here's a first draft of my professional goals for the summer and beyond.

Publish
Thus far, I have a database review and an article about the Wufoo poster in the works, so I need to finish these and get them submitted. Both of these opportunities came at me serendipitously and unexpectedly. I would also like to write something about professional networking using online social tools.

Reference competencies
At my library, we will be writing competencies for folks providing reference services. These competencies will be particularly useful as we integrate our reference and circulation desks. I'm quite excited to be part of this team.

Virtual reference services
Specific tasks include implementing a Meebo Me widget on our Web site and creating a custom search bar. I also want to become fully involved with the initiatives of the Libraries' wide Reinventing Reference Collaborative.

Diversity outreach
I am very excited about being on the Diversity Outreach Collaborative at the University Libraries because I believe that making sure that we are reaching and well-serving both our current and potential users is the most important thing libraries can do. If we aren't reaching and serving our people, all we have is a big warehouse of well-organized stuff (including both physical and virtual collections). I've offered to participate in a literature search for this committee, so that will be fun and useful, because I want to learn as much about this area as possible.

Consumer health and community outreach
Working in an academic health sciences libraries, I see oodles of opportunities to serve not only our institutionally affiliated users, but also our community users. I want to explore ways that my library can do more in these areas.

Actively seek a librarian job
This pretty much speaks for itself. I adore my job, but am ready to add the "librarian" title to my business card. I would prefer to stay in the Twin Cities, of course, because it is the Best. Place. Ever., but am open to other options as well.

Figure out what to do about this blog
I started this blog just a little over a year ago to fulfill a class assignment, but now I don't know what to do with it. I know that successful blogs should have a mission/vision/voice/purpose, but I've never taken the time to figure out what these are and thus this blog has often languished. Is it time to let it die? It is certainly time to decide.

Maintain a healthy balance between my personal and professional lives
Libraryland is awesome and grand, but I know I need create more balance and definition between my personal life and my professional life, to avoid going barmy.

Information literacy and teaching
I'm looking forward to opportunities to do teaching beyond one-shot, drop-in library workshops. I know I have lots to learn about teaching. I especially want to get better at incorporating active learning into my teaching. Also, I want to learn much more about information literacy (I would *love* to participate in the info lit immersion program). So, I need to do some serious reading, thinking and planning in this area.

Expand my Extreme Googling workshops
Both of our classes (Tips & Tricks for Expert Searching and Productivity Tools for Your Online Life) have been extremely successful. We of course continue to refine the workshops, but I would like to produce some additional material. I would like to create a Web site where I could post handouts, slides, links and online tutorials to support the workshops. I would also like to create a custom Google class, which would involve mashups, custom search engines and doing stuff with APIs.

Write and present about social networking
Specifically, I would like to explore professional networking via online social networking tools, both within librarianship and other professions. Also, I think social networking tools could be used by public health and community health workers to disseminate information to clients. So, I really need to read up on this and learn a bit about social networking theory. I will also need to familiarize myself with more online social networking tools.

Since I originally wrote this post this morning, I've added three more goals! Eeeep! Someone tell me to stop!

Well, David told me to stop, but I can't! Here's another goal.

Searching
I would like to learn how to do much more sophisticated, high-level searches, at the level necessary for systematic reviews. I love literature searching, but I need much more practice, especially with more complex searches.

On having a health information need

2008-03-29T12:10:00.017-05:00

During the wee hours of the morning on Tuesday, my partner and I were awakened by my beloved elderly border collie having a seizure on the living room floor. Having never seen a seizure before, I was aghast to see Zeke foaming at the mouth, eyes glazed, feet paddling away rapidly as if he were running full tilt. The seizure was prolonged, lasting at least five minutes after we woke up, plus, we don't know how long Zeke had been seizing before we woke up. Once the seizure itself subsided, Zeke was compelled to keep moving, unable to stop trotting around for the better part of two hours. A couple of calls to the emergency vet revealed that this is normal behavior for dogs post-seizures, but we still felt horrible and helpless, unable to do anything to assist Zeke other than try to reassure him. Eventually and gradually, Zeke was freed from compulsion to move and the three of us were able to get a few hours rest. He seemed to suffer no permanent effects from the seizure and the aftermath, only exhaustion.

When we visited our regular vet on Tuesday, we found out that seizures over two minutes in duration are considered to be severe in dogs and can cause significant brain damage. The blood work indicated no toxins in his system and nothing unusual except some markers that Zeke had indeed had a seizure. Because of the severity and duration of the seizure, the doctor immediately prescribed phenobarbital as a preventive measure against recurrences. She warned us of side effects, such as excessive thirst and especially balance, gait and disorientation problems, but said these would lessen after a week or two. True to the vet's prediction, our Zeke has indeed been extremely wobbly since Tuesday and somewhat disoriented. Our valiant, hyper, Frisbee dog was reduced to stumbling and falling, struggling to stand upright on the linoleum kitchen floor.

In the wake of this health crisis in our household, did I use my spiffy librarian skillz to seek additional information to address my concerns about the side effects of the medication? Did I search PubMed, Google Scholar or any reference materials to learn more about phenobarbital or seizures in dogs? Did I consult Healthypet.com from the AAHA for more information or consult my colleagues at the Veterinary Medical Library for assistance? Did call the vet? No. I talked to friends and co-workers, talked to my partner, and posted on twitter and Facebook. I talked to the dog, who waggled and licked my nose. In other words, I fretted and sought social support, but took no steps to acquire additional information to help me understand what was happening.

This morning, I woke up, drank a cup of coffee and said to myself, "Self, I think the Merck Veterinary Manual is available online." I consulted the Merck, searched PubMed, looked at the AAHA site and did a Google Scholar search. All of the sources reiterated exactly what the vet originally said about the side effects of phenobarbital subsiding after two weeks. Even so, I feel much better with additional information at hand.

I spend every day helping other people find information. I know that finding consumer health information can be helpful in coming to terms with a new diagnosis, yet, when a crisis presented itself in my life, I froze like a stunned bunny. What if, instead of a dog, the seizure had happened to my partner or elderly parent? What if I didn't understand English very well? What if I had no computer or searching skills? As librarians, we are trained to treat every information need with respect and all due seriousness, but, frankly, there are days when this is easier said than done. The reality is, however, that when people are scared and distressed, they just aren't always very rational. So, the next time Definitions Guy calls five times for the same definitions he requested last week or someone asks if they will get burned if their flame-retardant mattress catches on fire or a freaked out student approaches the desk for help on the verge of tears, I hope I will remember this week with Zeke and treat their questions and concerns with consideration, patience and attention.

Web 2.0 101: Week 1 RSS Feeds & Blogs

2008-03-17T21:53:00.003-05:00

During week one of MLA's Web 2.0 101 CE course, we have been asked to reflect on how we envision using RSS feeds at our library and how we think our patrons could use RSS feeds.

At my library, we have set up an RSS feed for our library news posts. This is a good idea, but I don't think we have many subscribers. A couple of our liaison librarians write blogs to update their academic departments; again, they don't have many subscribers and the librarians end up sending notifications of posts via email. Apparently, we would need to do much more marketing to get folks to subscribe to the feeds. We have also discussed setting up a patron centered blog. An excellent example of such a blog from an academic library is Library Hacks from Duke University Libraries. Typical topics range from search tips to library hours to citing sources, all very practical and succinct. My concern about starting such a blog is writing sufficient content to post frequently and substantially. Time is a scarce resource at my library, as it is at many academic libraries, and I wonder how I or other library staff would carve out enough time to make the blog successful.

One of my projects for this summer is to develop a series of Web 2.0 workshops for our patrons, which is one of the reasons I am taking this CE. We envision that the series would include an introductory class about "What is Web 2.0 Anyway?", one on creating Wikis, online tools for collaboration, organizing and sharing information using social bookmarking, and, of course, staying current using RSS feeds. I hope that teaching these workshops is one way we can educate our users about tools like RSS readers so that they will take advantage of the RSS feeds we offer.

I'm also interested in teaching our users how to subscribe to RSS feeds to the tables of contents of journals. We haven't done much to support this, but I know that many libraries have pages on their site which indicate which journals have TOC feeds available, so that would be something we could consider doing. I've figured out how to successfully save and subscribe to feeds from saved searches in PubMed (see my previous post), but am extremely frustrated with the new RSS feeds option for saved searches in Ovid MEDLINE. There doesn't seem to be any way to embed the Libraries' link resolver in the feed. The notifications regarding new articles in my Bloglines doesn't even link to the complete reference in Ovid. So, receiving notifications via Bloglines is frankly darned frustrating, because I then have to go look up the citation in Ovid MEDLINE or PubMed. This is so inefficient that I don't see any reason to burden my patrons with it. The Krafty Librarian and Ratcatcher have written intelligent posts about this OvidSP goofiness.

I look forward to reading other folks posts about how they are using RSS feeds or envision using them at their libraries.

Web 2.0 101: Introduction to Second Generation Web Tools

2008-03-17T20:59:00.005-05:00

I've embarked on a new little adventure by enrolling in an eight week online continuing education (CE) course offered by the Medical Library Association called Web 2.0 101: Introduction to Second Generation Web Tools. So, I'll be documenting my progress here on my existing blog.

The tasks for week 1 are all things I've been doing for a while. I've had the blog for about a year, but have never figured out exactly what I want to do with it; recently, I've pretty much ignored it. Perhaps this course will be an opportunity for me to revitalize it. Also, I already have numerous (147!) feeds in my Bloglines account, including feeds from journals and all kinds of blogs from Libraryland.

By the way, there has been some discussion amongst course participants about subscribing to PubMed feeds. If I am already in PubMed via my proxy server, I get the open url links to full text content via my library when I click on the link in my Bloglines. The order is important; I have to go into PubMed via my library's Web site first and authenticate via the proxy server in order to get the links. Also, as I already commented to the listserv (sorry about that, by the way), the PubMed support folks told me that there is a known bug that causes problems with RSS feeds from searches constructed from combining set numbers in the History tab. If you log into your MyNCBI account before you try to save the RSS feed, it seems to work fine.

I'm looking forward to learning some new skills as the course progresses. Stay tuned!

Library Journal Movers and Shakers 2008

2008-03-16T07:59:00.012-05:00

The March 15 issue of Library Journal includes the list of Movers and Shakers for 2008! Trying to browse the list of recipients on the LJ site, however, will cause you to beat your head to a bloody pulp on the nearest wall, so take my advice and don't even try. Jessamyn has created a nice brief list of recipients with hyperlinks to the articles about each and Connie Crosby has compiled a list with annotations on her blog. Librarian By Day took Jessamyn's list and added links to the recipients' blogs. Librarians are ace problem solvers, don't you think?

Here are a few highlights from the list, based on my initial reading:

Jessica Moyer and Jennifer Nelson are two librarians in the Twin Cities. Moyer is doing research on readers' advisory and has published Research-Based Readers' Advisory. She is also is adjunct faculty at my own College of St. Catherine. Nelson has created the MicroEntrepreneur Resource Center (MERC), a partnership between the Minneapolis Public Library (now part of the Hennepin County system) and Neighborhood Development, Inc. She has also developed teen technology programs in conjunction with the Science Museum of Minnesota (for more information, see this article in School Library Journal). Thanks to Library Journal for introducing me to two librarians doing great work in my own neck of the woods.

I'm delighted to see the impressive and indefatigable David Rothman on the list. LJ highlights Rothman's LibWorm, which is indeed a very handy aggregator and search engine for RSS feeds in in Libraryland. As a library professional in a academic medical library, however, I rely heavily upon Rothman's excellent blog to keep me current about all things pertaining to "Medical Librarianship and Web Geekery".

I'm very interested to learn more about the health education and outreach work to Hispanic communities of Annabelle V. Núñez at the University of Arizona, such as the Arizona Hispanic Center of Excellence, created in partnership with the University of Arizona College of Medicine. I would love to see more academic medical librarians and libraries doing this kind of work in their communities.

Even though he isn't a librarian, Tim Spalding of LibraryThing is most deservedly a Mover and Shaker for showing us all what libraries could be doing with social apps, tagging, personalized virtual collections, integration with Google Books and just plain making data about books fun and findable. Sometimes, it takes an outsider to show us what is possible.

Congratulations to all of the 2008 Movers and Shakers!

Looking ahead to next year, it would be great to see some of our colleagues from outside the United States on this list. Submit your nomination here. Also, maybe someone could give the nice folks at Library Journal a little refresher course on Web site usability so that they pay a little more attention to their site design.

Update: Cindi at Citegeist is adding to the aggregate knowledge of the hive mind by creating a Google spreadsheet to collate date about the Movers and Shakers from 2002-2008. If you want to help gather this data, please let her know.

Weed Whacking My Feeds

2008-01-19T15:22:00.000-06:00

Holy cow, when I checked my Bloglines today, I had over 400 posts waiting for me. Yikes! I suppose that is what happens when one subscribes to *cough* 175 feeds. So, I've been weed whacking, unsubscribing to feeds where 1) no one has posted in months, 2) I never read the posts, and/or 3) there are just too many posts published too often. I've even had the courage to unsubscribe to some famous bigwigs. I doubt Stephen Abrams will miss my subscription and, if he posts something earth shattering, I trust you all to let me know via your own posts, Twitter, del.icio.us, the LSW Room or other social networking venues. I'm even reconsidering my subscriptions to ResourceShelf and the ReadWriteWeb, much as I love them, simply because they are so prolific that I can't keep up. I don't necessarily have to subscribe to every feed myself to keep current. I'm prioritizing feeds from LIS job sites, people I know, other LIS students, and LIS blogs that are funny, inspiring and/or incisive. I'll also keep some feeds from people who write about medical librarianship, Health and Medicine 2.0, academic librarianship and Google. I'm also keeping a few personal favorites (well, obsessions, really), like Chowhound and the Daily Puppy. Of the feeds that I drop, we shall see which ones I truly miss over the next few weeks.

Gosh, this is hard. Right now, I'm down to 152 feeds, aiming for 125. Wish me luck!

Carnival of the Infosciences #86

2008-01-06T19:12:00.000-06:00

When we Minnesotans hear the words "carnival" and "winter" together, we immediately think first of the Saint Paul Winter Carnival. Since 1886, we have celebrated the coldest days of winter with festivities and events including parades, ice skating, tournaments, ice carving, building spectacular ice castles and, most notably, a dramatic reenactment of the epic battle between the Vulcanus Rex and His Krewe and the Realm of Boreas.

In Libraryland, we also celebrate winter according to the ways of our people. We feast with our families and friends, play DDR, Guitar Hero and Wii, read fat, fluffy novels, meet in hotels and conference centers to discuss matters of the greatest importance, frantically prepare for the work of the new year, and, most especially, we blog. Here are a few recent, notable posts from the biblioblogosphere.

Both Anna Creech and Connie Crosby submitted yeah, that might work from Attempting Elegance, in which Jenica P. Rogers-Urbanek discusses the trend of publishers pulling their journal content out of the aggregators in favor of publisher-specific stand-alone platforms. According to Jenica, while this model might benefit the publishers, it may not be cost-effective or efficient for libraries.

Anna Creech also submitted a post in which Mark Lindner of the Off the Mark responds to the recent LC Working Group on the Future of Bibliographic Control. Anna says, "What's the point of having cooperative cataloging if only certain blessed individuals can correct or enhance OCLC records? Mark is probably not the only frustrated cataloger reacting to the Working Group on the Future of Bibliographic Control's report with a strong dose of apathy."

Peter Bromberg of Library Garden wants to know: Librarians, Got Information Literacy? In this post (submitted by Kate Sheehan), Bromberg responds to a post by Marshall Kirkpatrick on ReadWriteWeb about how librarians of the future will be able to help patrons upload videos to YouTube. According to Bromberg, in order to promote true information literacy, librarians need to be able to teach such technology skills to patrons. He says,

"In days of yore librarians took pride in our information literacy knowledge and in our ability to instruct others, and help them navigate through the myriad of resources and finding tools (indexes, handbooks, specialized encyclopedias, etc.) I am hopeful that we can tap into that shared professional passion for connecting people and information and continue to manifest it by learning how to navigate through the NEW myriad of resources and finding tools."

See also responses from Kate Sheehan at the Loose Cannon Librarian and the Carnival's own Chadwick Seagraves at InfoSciPhi.

Meanwhile, over at librarian.net, Jessamyn West thinks about why exactly the digital divide matters (post submitted by Kate Sheehan). Jessamyn says, in summary, "We are a democracy. People who vote need to have access to as much reputable information as possible so they can make these and other choices. The internet is becoming an important ‘place’ to find this information. Unequal access to the internet creates unequal access to government."

Science librarian Christina Pikas considers Implications of newer models of popularization of science for science library collection development on Christina's LIS Rant. She summarizes, "Here's my point: research science libraries should make more effort to collect and market popular science materials. These materials should be an important part of the service we do -- plus they're cheap."

I've been pondering two posts by Meredith Farkas on Information Wants To Be Free. In Darn that dream, Meredith talks quite openly and honestly about her thwarted efforts to move into a management position at her library. In the follow up post Women, career, and getting a fair shake, she reflects upon a comment on the first post that said, in effect, that Meredith's job would mean less to her once she had children. Meredith examines this assumption by the anonymous commenter that all women necessarily want to have children. I recommend also reading the comments on both posts.

Alrighty, folks, that concludes this installment of the Carnival! Please be sure to submit posts to the eclectic librarian for #87. You can use the online form or tag posts carninfo in del.icio.us.

Carnival of the Infosciences Coming to the Vital Library

2007-12-20T14:33:00.001-06:00

Picture 006
Originally uploaded by Lexinatrix

Yes, all the rumors you've heard are true! The Carnival of the Infosciences is indeed coming to the Vital Library on January 7! So, I know that over the next couple of weeks you all have lots of feasts to eat, sleds to ride, snowballs to throw, DVDs to watch and hours to sleep, but, in between all of that, please find some time to take notice of your favorite posts in the biblioblogosphere and share them with the rest of us.

You can submit posts in a couple of ways: you can use the email form, but my favorite way to submit posts is to tag them carninfo in del.icio.us. Please tell me who you are (screen name or blog name is fine) and include a few words in the notes field about why you think the post is notable. For more information about submitting to the carnival, please consult the Submission Guidelines.

See you at the Carnival!

I AM the Annoyed Librarian

2007-11-12T22:35:00.000-06:00

Unless you have been living under a large pile of boulders, you should know by now that the Annoyed Librarian is not Meredith Farkas. It could be any of these people, or these. So, maybe it is you. Or, maybe, just maybe, I am she.

Zombies in Plain English

2007-10-24T20:32:00.000-05:00

I revere and worship Common Craft, don't you?

Kids in the Academic Library

2007-10-15T19:47:00.000-05:00

The big topic of discussion at MPOW today revolved around what to do about the kids in the library (by kids, I mean high school, junior high, or younger). Our particular library has a proud tradition of being extremely accessible to the community. We offer a consumer health collection, provide reference services to anyone who walks in the door or calls, and allow anyone to use the computer workstations without a university username and password. Gradually, over the past year or so, the word has gotten out to neighborhood kids that we don't lock down the computers and they have naturally gravitated to us. Most of the kids are well-behaved, orderly and respectful of the space and other users . They come in, borrow headphones, listen to music, chat, check their email, do homework, surf, and play games (we have no library policies against any of these activities for any of our users). I have never seen an affiliated patron not be able to find a workstation. Even so, significant problems have recently arisen. Especially on nights and weekends, their numbers have increased considerably. Some of the kids are noisy and disrespectful, others have started to bring their younger siblings and our university patrons have started to complain.

So, where does this leave us? The requisite committee is being formed to consider our options. I would hate to see us resort to extreme measures, such as locking down all the workstations, banning activities such as gaming, chat and social networking, or prohibiting kids entirely. On the other hand, I am concerned about the increasing numbers of young kids who are being left unattended in the library or who are in the care of siblings who are only slightly older. Were something to happen to one of these kids, what responsibility would the library have? I'm also concerned that some of our university patrons are starting to feel like they are unable to work in the library because of the kids. Only a few kids behave inappropriately, but they can be truly disruptive. As word continues to spread, I'm a bit concerned that we will be absolutely besieged when summer rolls around. Even given all of this, I'm quite concerned about the fact that kids are not being adequately served by the library community as a whole. Due to ongoing budget shortfalls, the closest public library branch has been closed and the remaining libraries are open very few hours, especially during nights and weekends. How can we make something good come out of all of this? Call me naive and a starry-eyed idealist, but I very much hope we can figure out how to respond to this situation in a creative, constructive, positive manner without resorting to draconian measures.

No Impact Man

2007-10-15T19:31:00.000-05:00

Blog Action Day seems like the perfect time to promote my new, favorite super hero, No Impact Man. For a year, No Impact Man (aka Colin Beaver) will, along with his wife, daughter and dog, endeavor to figure out how to live in New York City without impacting the environment. The blog makes for fascinating reading. Check it out.

bookish meme

2007-10-01T22:21:00.000-05:00

I've been feeling cranky, distracted and overwhelmed so, despite the best of intentions, I haven't posted in a while. I picked up this meme from Kaijsa at Jag söker job and it seems like something I can handle, so here goes:

1. Hardcover or paperback and why?
Paperback for everyday and hardcover for formal occasions. Seriously, paperbacks are so much easier to carry around and they are cheaper, but it is wonderful to own books that I treasure in hardcover, like The Annotated Alice, for example. I desperately want someone to give me a Lord of the Rings set in hardcover, perhaps with Alan Lee illustrations.

2. If I were to own a book shop, I would call it...
I've actually given this lots of thought over the years, because I've always wanted to own and run and bookstore (although I would hate to have to live off of my earnings). For a long time my chose name was Wild Iris Books, because there is so much one can do with the word and the image. Irises are my favorite flowers in the whole wide world. Alternatively, one could create a groovy eye logo, perhaps using a psychedelic spectrum of colors. Now, however, I have a friend named Iris, however, so it seems a bit odd to use the name for my bookstore, so I'll go with my second choice, which is Bibliomania (hands off -- no stealing this name!).

3. My favorite quotation from a book (mention the title) is...
The only one that comes to mind at the moment is from Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons: "I saw something nasty in the woodshed." If that means nothing to you, get thee hence immediately to go read the book or watch the excellent, funny movie.

4. The author (alive or deceased) I would love to have lunch with would be...
Heavens, I have no idea. When I've met authors or other famous people in the past, I tend to sit there paralyzed like a stunned bunny in the middle of a road who thinks that by staying perfectly still they can avoid harm. Alternatively, I envision myself stuck in a harrowing scene like unto the dinner party with all the famous women in Caryl Churchill's Cloud Nine. To answer the question, I suppose it would be cool to meet Anne Lamott. She seems like the kind of person with whom one could drink a cup of coffee, chat and just hang out for a while.

5. If I was going to a deserted island and could only bring one book, except for the SAS survival guide, it would be...
Hmm, is it a cop out to say the collected works of William Shakespeare or one of the Norton anthologies? I might bring Jane Eyre, because I love it so, or perhaps I should bring something more ambitious and time consuming that I've been to lazy to tackle, like Faulkner, Dante or Joyce.

6. I would love for someone to invent me a bookish gadget that...
Well, obviously, I want a device that could transport me in and out of books at will. I thought of this way before Jasper Fforde, I'll have you know.

7. The smell of an old book reminds me of...
bookstores, libraries and my grandmother's house. Not very original, but there you have it.

8. If I could be the lead character in a book (mention the title), it would be...
As a child, like many girls, I identified strongly with Anne Shirley (Anne of Green Gables) and Jo March (Little Women); also, Eowyn (The Lord of the Rings). I don't really have a good answer for this at this point in my life, though. I'll have to ruminate on this.

9. The most overestimated book of all time is...
I very much dislike The Catcher in the Rye, I'm sorry to say, mostly because I absolutely can't stand Holden Caufield as a human being. I just don't like spending time with him. I know that is a silly, superficial reason to dislike a book, but that is the honest truth.

10. I hate it when a book is...
Like Kaijsa, I hate it when a book is the only truly great book an author ever writes. Kind of like all the bands that only produce one great album.

Do you want to complete this meme? I hereby dub thee tagged.

Minnesota Library 2.0 Summit

2007-09-15T16:05:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, I attended the Minnesota Library 2.0 Summit, co-sponsored by Health Sciences Libraries of Minnesota (HSLM) and the Minnesota Chapter of SLA. Michael Stephens (of Tame the Web and Dominican University) was the featured speaker. I need to read through my notes and ruminate a bit, but here are some initial impressions:

The Introduction to Library 2.0 morning session consisted of pretty standard fare, but probably provided a necessary foundation of Library 2.0 philosophy and history to those in the room who haven't been reading the literature and biblioblogs.
I found the Best Practices in Social Software for Libraries afternoon session to be substantive, specific and useful regarding how libraries can and could use Web 2.0 tools such as wikis, blogs, RSS feeds, tagging, gaming and Second Life to enhance and provide library services.
I came away newly inspired to blog in earnest, with about fifteen ideas for posts.
I had hoped to be presented with more models of how medical libraries are using Web/Library 2.0 tools.
I enjoyed chatting and networking with the mix of academic librarians, public librarians, medical librarians, special librarians and MLIS students who attended.
Michael Stephens really does have the most fabulous hair.

HSLM and especially Melissa Rethlefsen deserve hearty congratulations on a job well done.

Apply now for the 2008 Medical Library Association Scholarship

2007-08-31T14:43:00.000-05:00

Interested in health sciences librarianship? A scholarship for up to $5000.00 will be granted to a student who is entering an ALA-accredited library school or who has yet to finish at least one half of the program's requirements in the year following the granting of the scholarship. For further information contact Lisa McGuire at lmcguire@umn.edu. Applications are available online at: http://www.mlanet.org/pdf/grants/schol_app_20050712.pdf

Please spread the word about this scholarship within your institutions and on your blogs!

Sesame Street Quiz: Who Are You?

2007-08-29T17:45:00.000-05:00

Which Sesame Street Character Are You?
	You are Big Bird. You are something of an eccentric, and not everyone always gives you credit for your inventiveness and intelligence. You may not always know everything, but people turn to you for your sound, unique logic. Plus, you have a big heart. Really big.
Find Your Character @ BrainFall.com

Phew, I was a little worried I might be Oscar. It would have been fun to be Grover, though, but that wasn't an available choice.

The Van der Zanden Memorial Pirate Research Center

2007-08-16T15:08:00.000-05:00

"Promotional video for The Van der Zanden Memorial Pirate Research Center, a fictional archival institution dealing with the history of pirates and piracy in the Pacific and Indian Oceans. The video (and the Research Center) was created for LIS 654 -- Management of Information Agencies, a course in the graduate program of Library & Information Studies Department at the University of Wisconsin in 2006. The video was directed/edited by Stacey Erdman, and was written by Erdman along with fellow classmates Deirdre Joyce, Shawn San Roman, and Abbie Norderhaug. Billy Vermillion is the host and narrator."

New Library 2.0 Kerfuffle

2007-08-04T11:12:00.000-05:00

What the heck is Library 2.0 anyway? What's it all about: technologies or services? This discussion has been revitalized in the biblioblogosphere by a series of posts by David Lee King, starting with Am I a 2.0 Librarian and the Library 2.0 Spectrum, which was followed by Library 2.0 spectrum thingie - asking for your input! and then Library 2.0 - Is it Techie Or Not?. All of these posts are well worth reading, both for King's ideas and especially for the discussion within the comments. What particularly set everyone off was the Library 2.0 Spectrum diagram, which emphasizes using particular technologies and uses the term "Luddite" to describe librarians who are not innovative users and adopters of emerging technologies. Earlier in July, King wrote two equally provocative posts on Librarian 2.0, again focusing on technology skills (Basic Competencies of a 2.0 Librarian and Basic Competencies of a 2.0 Librarian, take 2).

Here are some of responses from the biblioblogosphere:

Cindi (who aptly deemed the whole discussion a kerfuffle) has been inspired to post two excellent video responses to King's posts on Chronicles of Bean: David's Librarian 2.0 Spectrum Thingie Another attempt at illustrating Librarian 2.0.
King's posts were also a topic of discussion during the most recent episode of Uncontrolled Vocabulary, an online talk show about all things library.
Steven Lawson on See Also contributes Writing and talking about librarian 2.0.

What do I think about all of this? As I've said before, I don't consider myself a tech person, but I'm endeavoring mightily to learn and use Web 2.0 technologies because I think they can be useful and valuable tools to help us better serve our users and, perhaps more importantly, people who aren't yet library users. If libraries and librarians don't continually strive to offer services that are useful, helpful and relevant, we might as well pack it in and go look for other jobs. We can't afford to stagnate or rest on our laurels; rather, we must innovate, stretch and learn so that we can offer the best possible services to as many people as possible. We must use and improve our mad organizational, research and searching skillz (yes, including the traditional ones). We must meet our users and potential users where they are and then we need to work our little tails off to let people know what we can do for them. For me, Library 2.0 is all about libraries and librarians being doing everything in their power to help as many people as possible find and use information.

Crossing the River: Bridge Collapse in Minneapolis

2007-08-02T08:29:00.000-05:00

When I left work around 6:00 pm yesterday, I heard several sirens, quite nearby. I decided they must be going to the University hospital and continued home, driving across the Washington Avenue Bridge. It wasn't until I reached home and turned on the television that I realized what had happened: the 35W bridge had plunged into the Mississippi River during rush hour.

As I did on 9/11 and on the day that Senator Paul Wellstone was killed, I feel shocked, saddened and numb. I'm grateful for the friends and family who called or emailed to check on us. I'm grateful for the companionship, support and good humor of my friends and colleagues in the LSW Meebo Room, who kept me company last night as I watched the initial news reports. More than anything, I am acutely aware of my privilege and good fortune that my life is such that, unlike many folks around the world, I do not live with a sense of immediate peril and danger on a daily basis.

When I go to work today, I will cross the river. From the Washington Avenue Bridge, I will look over and see what remains of the adjacent 35W bridge.

Updates: Turns out I couldn't really see that much of the rubble while crossing the Washington Avenue Bridge because of turns in the river and trees. Still, I wasn't the only one who stopped to look silently at the place where the bridge used to be. Also, I just spoke on the phone with one of our librarians who drove over the bridge about 10-15 minutes before it fell. Scary.

This is just harrowing, that rescuers apparently had to leave survivors trapped under the wreckage last night because they couldn't reach them safely.

Resources:

The homepage of the University of Minnesota Government Publications Library currently features documents relevant to the bridge collapse.
Another excellent resource: e-democracy wiki: 35W
Resources on Minnesota Issues: Minneapolis Interstate 35W Bridge Collapse from the Minnesota Legislative Reference Library.
Bridge Collapse Resources from the CDC

Literature Nerd

2007-08-01T16:43:00.000-05:00

What Be Your Nerd Type? Your Result: Literature Nerd Does sitting by a nice cozy fire, with a cup of hot tea/chocolate, and a book you can read for hours even when your eyes grow red and dry and you look sort of scary sitting there with your insomniac appearance? Then you fit this category perfectly! You love the power of the written word and it's eloquence; and you may like to read/write poetry or novels. You contribute to the smart people of today's society, however you can probably be overly-critical of works. It's okay. I understand.
Social Nerd
Musician
Gamer/Computer Nerd
Anime Nerd
Drama Nerd
Science/Math Nerd
Artistic Nerd
What Be Your Nerd Type? Quizzes for MySpace

My Health Minnesota → Go Local

2007-07-31T21:23:00.000-05:00

As of today, My Health Minnesota → Go Local is up and running!

My Health Minnesota → Go Local is a free, online directory of health care services and providers throughout Minnesota, including clinics, hospitals, nursing homes, assisted living facilities, health screening programs, and more. All 87 counties in Minnesota are covered. This is a joint project of the National Library of Medicine and the Health Sciences Libraries of the University of Minnesota, the Mayo Clinic Libraries, and the MINITEX Library Information Network. It is associated with MedlinePlus, a Web site created by the National Library of Medicine that provides consumers with useful, accessible and credible health information.

As you can see, many individuals and organizations have contributed to My Health Minnesota → Go Local (I had the privilege to play a truly teeny part by gathering information for the database). I want to send a special shout out to the indefatigable Karla Block, whose hard work and strong leadership were crucial to making My Health Minnesota → Go Local manifest. May she enjoy a nice, long, restful vacation after all the hoopla dies down.

Patience, Grasshopper

2007-07-19T19:01:00.000-05:00

So, a few days ago, one of the librarians with whom I work shared with me the following words of wisdom:

"being a librarian is all about feeling like a moron more frequently than you'd like."

I told her I was going to have this inscribed on a tasteful, decorative plaque.

In all seriousness, though, I understand what she was getting at, that it really is okay not to know everything. Sometimes it seems that librarians are supposed to know how to do everything except pilot a nuclear submarine. Knowing how to find and organize information is the least of it. We are also expected to be able to masterfully code, design Web sites, create databases, write, research, analyze data, manage projects, design buildings, manage people, teach, speak in public, fund raise, etc. And then there's figuring out how to develop a professional identity, safely navigate the perilous waters of office politics and cultivate positive relationships with co-workers. Honestly, a girl could get a little overwhelmed.

Many bibliobloggers quite rightly been advocating recently for developing minimum tech competencies for librarians. I'm doing pretty well by the Library Revolution list, but I lack many of the competencies on David Lee King's lists (here and here). The Cool Librarian, however, wisely counsels, among other things, that "we need to understand that we can learn from each other, and we need patience."

And so, I am reminded that it is okay for me to consult with my colleagues and to ask for help when I need it. Also, it is okay for me to take the time to learn what I need to know to become a kick ass librarian. After all, even though I am a bit *ahem* older than some, I am still officially a student. Patience, Grasshopper, patience.

The Wizard of Oz - A Tale of Library Circulation

2007-06-30T15:01:00.000-05:00

Very fun! Perfect for Saturday afternoon viewing. From the Salt Lake County Library.

Cites & Insights Cites the Vital Library!

2007-06-29T12:53:00.000-05:00

My little post about lists vs. blogs called Library Listservs*: Not Dead Yet has made an appearance in the July, 2007 issue Cites & Insights in the Making it Work section. Thanks, Walt!

*Note: Walt has rightly pointed out that "Listserv" is a trademark, so I'll be sure to use the more general term "electronic mailing list" in the future.

Quotation Marks

2007-06-28T12:47:00.000-05:00

A few weeks ago, for the Eight Random Things Meme, I complained about people who misuse quotation marks, so wouldn't you know it, I *am* the quotation marks. What does it all mean?

I'm also pleased to be associated in any way with a book by the esteemed and fascinating Marjorie Garber.

Thanks to Mark and Joy for bringing this entertaining little quiz to my attention.

Your Score: quotation marks

You scored 53% Sociability and 64% Sophistication!

There is a lot more to you than meets the eye. You certainly get plenty of "action," but you'd be happier if those who lusted after you were more selective. You hate being used as a general intensifier; haven't these people ever heard of underlining? Italics? And yes, you remember the cruel words Mr. Joyce directed at you.

But you let none of this get you down; those who abuse you are destined for a "special" reward, sooner or later. You feel particularly warm toward periods, commas, exclamation points, and question marks, and usually wish to have them next to you. Parenthesis can sometimes trouble you.

Link: The Which Punctuation Mark Are You Test written by Gazda on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the The Dating Persona Test

Google Health Advisory Council is Formed Sans Medical Librarians

2007-06-28T11:25:00.001-05:00

I'm not the first to post on this, but I'm officially joining the chorus of folks who are justifiably baffled that Google has formed their Google Health Advisory Council without including a single medical librarian. Maybe they think they don't need us because they have Dean Ornish? And, as Open Medicine points out, they don't include any nurses either. For that matter, I don't see any allied health professionals. It seems that Google has a limited perception of who has a stake in and extensive experience with providing health information to the public.

New (6/29/07)
Rachel from Women's Health News has this to say: "I want to know how a company trying to connect people to health information doesn’t bother to get a few medical librarians on board, given that’s our skillset, profession, and raison d’etre. It’s what we have master’s degrees in. It’s what we do every. single. day. Grrr. Bad Google. If you start a health advisory council and annoy the docs, nurses, and medlibs right away, how good a job have you done?"

Other comments from bloggers:
omg tuna is kewl
UBC Academic Search - Google Scholar Blog
Kevin, M.D.
Emergiblog
Pixel RN

8 Random Things Meme

2007-06-03T13:37:00.000-05:00

I just realized today that Joy tagged me for the 8 Random Things Meme, so here are eight things you may or may not already know about me:

As a young child, I desperately yearned for a dog, but my mom wouldn’t let us get one, so my brothers and I instead owned a series of gerbils, all named after mythological figures: Odysseus, Theseus, Sigurd and Atalanta. None of them lived very long, as they tended to escape the gerbil cage and plunge to untimely deaths after crawling into the forced air heat vent.
My most earnest, heart felt desire is to be able to raise one eyebrow at will, thus conveying a sense of paralyzing irony.
In my youth, music dominated my life for a long time. I aspired to be a professional cellist, but I don’t play anymore.
I adore peanut butter but can’t stand peanuts. Go figure.
I’m PK twice over, as both my father and grandfather were Presbyterian ministers.
I grew up in Cleveland Heights, Ohio during the Mistake on the Lake era. Yes, Cleveland is where the river caught on fire.
I suffer from an irrational fear and loathing of slugs. Eewww.
It irks me tremendously when people put quotation marks around words for no legitimate reason; for example, when people use them for emphasis. Stop the madness, people!

I think every single person in the biblioblogosphere has either completed the meme or been tagged, so I give up on trying to tag anyone. If you see this and want to do the meme, feel free to pretend that I tagged you.

The Summer of Search

2007-05-24T08:26:00.000-05:00

2007 is my Summer of Search. I'm taking the Searching Electronic Databases class (in which I get to experience the joys of Dialog searching), I'm meeting once a week with one of our librarians (who is a kick ass searcher) for an ongoing tutorial in MEDLINE searching, and our entire reference staff will have Search Camp twice a month all summer (we will concentrate on MEDLINE searching and using clinical tools like Up To Date and MDConsult). I'm also teaching an Ovid MEDLINE Basics class and an Advanced Google class. Will I be any smarter by the end of the summer? Maybe not, but I hope I'll be a better searcher.

Bellydancing Librarians

2007-05-20T08:29:00.001-05:00

If this doesn't brighten your day a bit, I don't know what will.

only a little evil?

2007-05-12T14:02:00.000-05:00

How evil are you?

This is good, right? Better than being totally evil, I hope? I found out about this quirky little quiz from Life As I Know It.

Compassion @ Your Library

2007-05-02T22:04:00.000-05:00

Once again, I have to acknowledge the wonderful Feel-Good Librarian blog. Today, the FGL posted a moving story about how she manifests kindness and compassion at her library. The FGL reminds us that the raison d'etre for libraries isn't about books or information, but instead is about people.

RSS Explained!

2007-04-27T18:39:00.000-05:00

Click To Play

"There are two types of Internet users, those that use RSS and those that don't. This video is for the people who could save time using RSS, but don't know where to start."

This video about RSS from Common Craft is sheer genius in its simplicity and clarity (to see the original Common Craft post go here. Much better than the long winded post I wrote about RSS last week to fulfill a class assignment. Oh, and now I see the folks at Common Craft also have a post called What are the Differences Between Message Boards and Weblogs?, which is another topic about which we were assigned to write. Sigh.

Library Listservs*: Not Dead Yet?

2007-04-22T16:36:00.000-05:00

[Final requisite blog post for my class: "After you have monitored Web4Lib, write a post describing what you think are the differences between blogs and electronic discussion groups. What are the advantages and disadvantages of both?"]

With the current boom of publishing in the biblioblogosphere, one would think that electronic discussion groups (commonly called listservs after a particular electronic discussion group software application - I'm going to live on the edge and use the terms interchangeably here) would be on the way out in favor of blogs. A look at the numbers, however, indicates that listservs and other electronic discussion groups are alive and well. Web4Lib currently has 3,250 subscribers from 54 countries. Dozens of electronic discussion groups for librarians are still quite active. The venerable Project Wombat (nee Stumpers) lists for reference librarians are so active that they offer three different levels of lists containing different numbers posts per day, so that folks won't get overwhelmed by too much content. So, despite a few calls for the demise of electronic discussion lists, it doesn't seem that blogs are going to supplant them anytime soon.

While electronic discussion lists and blogs both foster professional community, collaboration and support, significant differences exist. A brief look at some of the distinctions between the two mediums might help to explain why both remain useful and used for at least the near future.

Electronic discussion groups tend to be more formal than blogs
Electronic discussion groups tend to be formal in tone, content and structure. Messages regarding non-work, non-library issues are generally discouraged. Many listservs, including Web4Lib, are moderated and they have clearly delineated posting guidelines and guidelines for list behavior. Some of these guidelines might at first seem draconian and a bit condescending, but I can see why they are necessary. Last year, I spent some time on a library Listserv That Shall Not Be Named which wasn't well moderated and didn't seem to have clear policies and it was an absolutely awful experience. Many was the day that my email in box was populated by listserv postings that were petty, whiney, rude and, thus, annoying. People bickered and squabbled and scolded each other for their bad behavior. I soon unsubscribed. So, the formality of library listservs is all for the greater good.

Since blogs usually have only one (or a few authors), however, the author gets to set the tone for the blog and decide whether or how to moderate comments. Any weirdness on a blog therefore reflects more on the author than on the community as a whole (unless you are Michael Gorman, of course). While the content of blog posts may revolve around the profession, the tone is often less formal and more conversational. This works better for blogs than listservs because the author has more control.

Blogs are generally created by a single author or small group of authors, while electronic discussion lists are products of a specific community
Anyone who is a listserv member can post a message to the listserv. Most blogs, on the other hand, tend to be locked down so that only the prescribed author or authors can post. Readers can comment on posts, but they can't originate posts. Thus blogs tend to reflect a the knowledge, perspectives, and voices of a few, while a listserv reflects the knowledge, perspectives and voices of many.

Electronic discussion groups are text only
I think a huge difference between electronic discussion groups and blogs is that the former are text only, while blogs can be multimedia, with audio, video, presentation slides, graphics, pictures and links galore in addition to text. Blogs can have color and style in addition to substance.

Listservs have longevity
Most blogs are still pretty darn new, but many listservs and electronic discussion lists have been around for ten or fifteen years. The online archives of messages include a wealth of knowledge regarding the recent history of librarianship and how our collective thinking has evolved over time. One suspects that few blogs in Libraryland will acquire comparable longevity.

For more information:
Discussion Groups on LIS Wiki. Provides an overview of electronic discussion groups for librarians, with links to lists, organized by topics.
Electronic Mailing List Wikipedia provides a good general article.
South Jersey Regional Library Cooperative (SJRLC) has both a blog and a listserv, to meet different needs.

*Walt Crawford has quite rightly pointed out that "Listserv" is a trademarked term, so I'll be sure to use the more generic "electronic mailing list" or just "list" in the future.

RSS as an essential tool for libraries, librarians and library users

2007-04-21T17:41:00.000-05:00

[This is a requisite post to fulfill the following class assignment: "In your own words describe what RSS is. Why are so many libraries so ape over RSS?"]

What is RSS?
Alrighty, let's start with the nitty-gritty, basics, shall we? Technically speaking, RSS is a XML format that incorporates metadata that describes Web content. According to Wikipedia, RSS stands for one or more of the following:

Really Simple Syndication
Rich Site Summary
RDF Site Summary

Basically, RSS feeds (and other kinds of Web feeds) deliver Web content in serialized chunks to users. RSS is frequently associated with blogs, but it is also used for all kinds of other content, including podcasts, news, or even just updates and additions to regular Web pages. People commonly subscribe to RSS feeds via a reader or aggregator, which enable them to access content from multiple sources in one place. Bloglines and Google Reader are well-known and popular aggregators. It is now quite easy to subscribe to feeds (look for the little orange icons (often in the browser bar) or an icon that says RSS feeds or perhaps something that says XML). One can also subscribe to RSS feeds using a browser, such as Safari or Firefox, or have RSS feeds go directly to an email client such as Thunderbird. There are oodles of other readers listed at RSS Compendium. RSS feeds can also display on Web sites and blogs or be used to remix content in new ways, as in mashups.

Save the time of the user
The point of all of this is that one no longer needs to go look at a Web site to see if there is new content; instead, the new content is delivered to the user via the RSS feed, all in one convenient place. RSS feeds are great substitutes for enewsletters, reducing clutter in the users' in boxes, and users can subscribe to RSS feeds without registering or creating account, thus not generating any opportunities for spam.

What does RSS have to do with libraries?
Many libraries use RSS feeds to share information with their users about events, news or items added to the collection. Hennepin County Library, for example, creates RSS feeds for library news, items added to over two dozen subject guides, events & classes and booklists. They also make it easy to create a RSS feed for a search in the library catalog. Another fabulous example is the Ann Arbor District Library, which makes available a gazillion RSS feeds on all aspects of library services and collections. Other libraries allow users to create RSS feeds of what they have checked out. In a nutshell, RSS feeds make it easy to push information out to users once they subscribe.

More nifty things libraries, librarians and library users can do with Web feeds

Add a feed of your del.icio.us bookmarks to your Web site or blog. Better yet, use a del.icio.us account to compile Web resources on a particular subject of interest to your library's users and share those resources with them via a RSS feed.
Stay current on topics of interest by adding RSS feeds to your Google Personalized Home Page
Bring together content from various Web sites & services into one place using Suprglu.
Integrate RSS feeds pertaining to particular topics into course Web pages or pages on course management systems (e. g., WebCT).
Encourage users to create their own RSS feeds on a particular topic based on citations store in bibliographic management systems such as RefWorks, per the University of Iowa Libraries.
Use RSS to create current awareness alerts from scholarly journals of new articles published. See the Ebling Library for the Health Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison for a great example of some of the feeds available from ejournals.
Save a PubMed search as a feed.
If a Web site doesn't have a RSS feed, you can make your own with a handy online tool called Page2RSS.

Finding feeds

Resource Shelf has published an excellent list of places to find feeds called Serious RSS Fishing Holes.
Technorati an extremely large and popular directory and search engine for blogs.
U. S. Government RSS Library links to RSS feeds from a wide variety of Federal Web sites on topics including health, medicine, education, employment, science, business, economics, etc.
LisZen provides a search engine to over 600 library and information science blogs.
LibWorm also provides a search engine for library and librarian blogs. It aggregates over 1500 feeds. One can also create a new, custom RSS feed based on a search or use LibWorm itself as a blog reader.

For more information regarding RSS

The Evolution of RSS by Andrew King includes the history of RSS and lots of information about the technical stuff.
Hot, Fresh, Delivered to You! a fabulous online tutorial by Luke Rosenberger, North Harris Montgomery Community College District
Using RSS to increase user awareness of e-resources in academic libraries by Jay Bhatt.
RSS(sm): Rich Site Services by Gerry McKiernan from the Iowa State University Library is a directory of libraries that provide information and services via Web feeds.
Library 2.0 Theory: Web 2.0 and Its Implications for Libraries by Jack M. Maness (Webology, 3(2), June, 2006). Nice overview of Library 2.0 and Web 2.0 technologies.

Little Library Pencils: Their History and Origin

2007-04-15T11:06:00.000-05:00

This documentary from Williams College Library explains from whence come the little, short library pencils. Who knew?

One step closer to a new Hennepin County Library

2007-04-11T22:28:00.000-05:00

As of yesterday (April 10), the Hennepin County Library and Minneapolis Public Library are one step closer to merging to become one big and hopefully happy library system after the Hennepin County Board of Commissioners approved the proposed merger. The Minneapolis Public Library Board and the Minneapolis City Council have already approved it, so now the proposal is off to the state legislative. Some pay discrepancies still need to be resolved. I'm crossing my fingers that this all works out. The people of Minneapolis deserve to have libraries that are actually open!

Update: According to an article in the Star Tribune, Minneapolis library workers oppose any requisite pay cuts conditional to the merger.

New Ning for LIS Students

2007-04-08T15:51:00.000-05:00

Karin Daiziel has created yet another Ning social network, but this one is for LIS students. Unlike the Library 2.0 Ning, which is bustling and buzzing with over 1000 members, the LIS Students Ning has just a handful of members thus far. Still, I think it is a great idea and has the potential to facilitate networking, discussion and solidarity amongst LIS students nationally and internationally. Join up and come find me!

Move your library into the ecircle in less than a week!

2007-04-07T15:20:00.000-05:00

GeekFella Presents Pimpin Yo Library

I encountered this vidcast on the Library 2.0 network on Ning. In this video, GeekFella explains how to easily and inexpensively make your library a social library that appeals to and serves the technologically savvy users he calls Info Addicts. He calls this moving the library into the ecircle. The video is longish (about 25 minutes), so here is a summary of some of his main points:

Get a Linux server

Use Webmin to manage the Linux server.

Get a content management system (CMS), e. g., Drupal or Joomla

Put the CMS on the Linux server.

Use the CMS for your Web site.

Even if one is not a tech person, CMSs make it easy to create RSS feeds for your site.

Create a social network

Ning – www.ning.com

For marketing to and fomenting social interaction between library users.

Need more technical assistance?

Approach your local community college for free or low cost help from

Linux users groups (LUGs) – another great resource to tap into.

eLance

Geeks for hire.

An eLance programmer worked on developing Digg.

Despite GeekFella's excellent, pragmatic explanations, I'm not entirely convinced these things are as easy as he says. As someone who is not very technologically savvy, accomplishing all of this would most likely involve the utterance of a certain amount of impolite language and much longer than a week. What GeekFella has managed to convince me of, however, is that I can probably accomplish much more than I think in Libraryland 2.0, with time, patience, perseverance, assistance and gumption.

Advances in Peeps Research

2007-04-06T10:13:00.000-05:00

Peeps have once again been spotted in the library! A small tribal group of highly intelligent Peeps have been documented using a public library in New Jersey. A photo-documentary shows the Peeps using the library for typical research and recreational purposes. As pointed out by the folks at Pimp My Library, these Peeps also perform typical, mundane library tasks in solidarity with library staff. This study continues the work of the seminal study of Peeps behavior in the library authored by Staley Library at Millikin University in 2003.

Peeps have also recently been documented engaging in many other activities. For more information on Peeps history, research and behavior, see the following:

Peeps Research
Ban Peeps Research!
Lord of the Peeps
Lord of the Rings
Peep Henge
Peeps Directory

Books not bombs

2007-04-01T12:04:00.000-05:00

This YouTube video was produced by Downtown Community Television Center (DCTV) in New York City. One of DCTV's programs is Professional Television Youth Media Productions (Pro-TV), which provides the facilities, equipment and training necessary for young people to produce their own short films.

We are all told that library services, staff and hours are being cut due to lack of sufficient funds, but, in reality, the funds exist, they are simply being spent on other priorities. When will we rise up and challenge this false model of paucity? The United States as a political entity is incredibly wealthy. Americans need to regain influence over how and on what our public monies are spent.

HCL Bookspace

2007-03-25T22:43:00.000-05:00

Lorcan Dempsey hearts Hennepin County Library's Bookspace too! See, I knew it was cool!

By the way, it seems that the proposed merger between Hennepin County Library and Minneapolis Public Library has hit a little snag over salaries. As a Minneapolis resident, I'm crossing my fingers that it goes through, in hopes that Minneapolis libraries will eventually be able to stay open more hours, once they are more financially stable. Such a crying shame to have such wonderful libraries and to not have them open more than 40 hours per week.

And there was great rejoicing in the land!

2007-03-25T18:13:00.000-05:00

I just checked in Bloglines and I now have three subscribers who are not me!! Hooray! Thank you, beloved subscribers! I promise to do my best to make this blog worth your while. I appreciate you sticking with me while I get the hang of this whole blogging thing. Also, while I complete two more obligatory posts for my class. One of my friends told me that my blog is [ahem], shall we say, a little bit dull, so I promise to do my best to make it more lively. I can't necessarily promise dancing girls or trained poodles, but I'll do my best.

Lies, damn lies and usage statistics?

2007-03-25T14:41:00.000-05:00

As an assignment for my class, I subscribed to Web4Lib and monitored it for a week. I choose to do so from Thursday, March 8 through Thursday, March 15.

One of the topics which generated the most responses during this time period was Lies, Damn Lies and Usage Statistics?, posted on March 8 by Stacy Pober, Information Alchemist (which might be the world's best job title) at the O'Malley Library at Manhattan College. Ms. Pober describes something quite peculiar about the annual database usage reports she recently downloaded from EBSCO. As she says, "Some of the databases in the report were ones for which we had no subscriptions and no access. Yet the report showed usage for those databases, and it was for multiple months in several databases, so it was not a one-time computer foul up." According to Ms. Posner, she contacted the technical support people at EBSCO, who suggested that she deselect any databases to which her library does not subscribe when requesting the report, but were inexplicably unable to explain why this problem had occurred. Ms. Posner found this frustrating and not very helpful:

"I'm sure that I am not the only librarian who assumed in the past that the vendor supplied usage data was correct. Since we use that data as an important factor in our database acquisitions and renewal decisions, it would be nice to have some independent assurance of the accuracy of the data we're getting from vendors.

I don't really think that our database providers are using Ouija boards to produce our usage reports. The question is whether they are routinely checking the validity of the figures they collect and supply to us. Apparently, some of them are not doing logic and accuracy testing of the software they use to produce usage statistics."

This post generated ten responses from other listserv members, most of whom strongly agreed that a) library vendors have an obligation to provide libraries with accurate and useful data regarding usage of eresources and b) that Ms. Pober deserved an honest and complete explanation of why the initial report showed incorrect data. Sarah Berndt referred readers to an article in the January 2007 (v. 68:1) issue of College and Research Libraries called "Measurement of Use of Electronic Resources: Advances in Use Statistics and Innovations in Resource Functionality" by Deborah D. Blecic, Joan B. Fiscella, and Stephen E. Wiberlye, Jr.

The research reported in the College and Research Libraries article shows large and significant discrepancies between the data reported by EBSCO and those generated by COUNTER Compliant Statistics. To me, given the millions of dollars that libraries pay to vendors such as EBSCO to license electronic resources, these discrepancies are inexcusable. Every day, collection development librarians are having to justify their purchasing decisions to patrons, library directors are having to defend budget increases to their governing institutions, and patrons are clamoring for even more access to eresources. Without reliable usage data, how can librarians be expected to do any of this successfully and responsibly? As a former serials acquisitions person myself, I've worked with wonderful, responsive, helpful people from EBSCO and, well, shall we say, less than helpful people. Some problems I reported were fixed the same day and others took six months to get fixed. Again, considering the enormous quantities of money that libraries fork over to EBSCO in particular, that Ms. Pober received anything less than a detailed explanation of the reason for the bad data, accompanied by a certain level of contrition, is really rather appalling. We all deserve better service responsiveness than this from our eresources vendors.

Dream

2007-03-20T08:38:00.000-05:00

A few weeks after I began my current job, I had a dream about my new library. In my dream, an unprecedented disaster of B movie proportions had occurred. The exact nature of the disaster (e. g., nuclear strike, tornado, asteroid collision, alien invasion, killer tomatoes) wasn't clear, but, despite the devastation, strangely, we had all come into work. There we were, with our little flashlights, in the concrete, underground bunker which is our library, valiantly trying to meet the information needs of our patrons, who had also inexplicably come into the library to ask questions at the Reference Desk, despite everything going to hell in a handbasket. The last thing I remember before waking up is turning to one of the librarians and saying, "Boy, it sure is a good thing we didn't get rid of all those print volumes of Index Medicus."

I guess it must be Karen Schneider's recent Dear Library of Congress post on ALA TechSource that brought this dream to mind and has me a little nostalgic for the print-based libraries of my youth. She may well be right that in the future "books" will be digital and I suppose I'm really okay with that. Every now and then, though, I get a little misty eyed.

ninging

2007-03-19T22:05:00.000-05:00

I'm on the Library 2.0 ning. Come find me!

U.S. Report to Fault F.B.I. on Subpoenas

2007-03-09T12:12:00.000-06:00

Click here to read this New York Times article about the new Office of the Attorney General at the U. S. Department of Justice report which indicates that the National Security Letters allowed by the PATRIOT Act may have been misused by the F. B. I. and that the numbers of these letters issued has been previously underreported . And here is a new AP article, in which the Attorney General and FBI director admit that the FBI most likely broke the law.

Click here to view the actual report from the Attorney General's Office.

For more information on libraries and the PATRIOT Act, I recommend Refuge of a Scoundrel: The Patriot Act in Libraries by Herbert N. Foerstel. It includes an excellent description of exactly how the bill was introduced and passed by both Houses of Congress.

I'm looking forward to reading America's Unpatriotic Acts: The Federal Government's Violation of Constitutional and Civil Rights by Walter M. Brasch.

The Feel-good Librarian still needs our positive mojo

2007-02-25T15:54:00.000-06:00

The Libraryland blogosphere has been abuzz with good wishes and prayers for the Feel-good Librarian, who just underwent surgery due to the Big C. I'm sure that the FGL could use whatever additional, positive mojo we can send her way. Oh, and if you haven't yet read her blog, I highly recommend it. As an aspiring librarian, I find her customer-centered stories and service philosophy quite heartening. The customers are, after all, as the FGL says, "Why we do this."

Why I ♥ (Heart) Hennepin County Library

2007-02-24T18:39:00.000-06:00

1. Bookspace
Hennepin County Library (HCL) has taken their extensive reader's advisory resources (multitudinous booklists, plus resources such as NoveList, What Do I Read Next?, Overbooked) and support for book clubs (discussion questions, sources for reviews, book club kits, sources for book reviews and author information, etc.) and repackaged all of this content to create a lovely new site called Bookspace. Not only is the new site much better organized and more aesthetically pleasing, but it now solicits and displays user-created content. As of today, 96 booklists from readers have been posted!

2. Amazon/HCL Lookup Tool
Installation of this extension in Firefox allows you to see whether or not HCL owns a book every time you view a record for a book in Amazon.com. The user has to find this extension and install it, of course, but this extension brings the Library one step closer to meeting the users where they are.

3. HCL Catalog Google Gadget
When I log into Google, the first gadget I see at the top of my home page is a tool that enables me to look up items in the HCL catalog. Unlike the Amazon/HCL Firefox extension, I did not have to install this. It was magically there when I logged into my Google home page for the first time! Now this is meeting the users where they are.

4. Readers' Comments
The HCL Catalog allows readers to post comments and reviews. I suspect this feature is underutilized, however, because the Comments graphic isn't very obvious and doesn't really look like something one should click on. Also, I would like it to be labeled something more explicit like "Reader Comments and Reviews." Still, this is a step in the right direction and a functionality many public libraries still don't have at all.

5. HCL & Teens
The HCL TeenLinks page includes podcasts, a poll, events, reading recommendations, book reviews by teens and more. I especially like the Web links included under Teen Topics for categories including: Sex & Sexuality, Healthy Body & Mind, Express Yourself, School Stuff etc. HCL also offers a 24/7 Ask A Librarian service, a Flickr account and a MySpace page. Perhaps most importantly, HCL recruits teen volunteers and has a Teen Advisory Group, which I'm sure significantly informs all of these features and services.

6. HCL + MPL = 1 Fabulous Library System?
A proposed merger between Hennepin County Library and the financially beleaguered Minneapolis Public Library has been approved by the Committee on Future of Libraries in Hennepin County and now awaits approval from various other official powers-that-be. How exactly this merger would ultimately pan out remains to be seen, but this Minneapolis resident remains hopeful that a merger could provide some much-needed financial stability for Minneapolis Public Library without compromising the quality of either system.

7. The Sanford Berman Legacy
Even though he left HCL in 1999 and HCL no longer uses his innovative subject catalog, it is impossible to talk about HCL's good work without acknowledging the Utopian spirit and long-lasting influence of the legendary author, cataloger and rabble-rouser Sandy Berman and his Sandynistas.

bibliographic instruction

2007-02-16T17:16:00.000-06:00

New technologies can be so challenging...

Me 2.0

2007-02-10T20:26:00.001-06:00

Here it is, my very first post on my very new blog. Hooray! The genesis of this blog stems from a required assignment for the internet fundamentals class I am currently taking as part of my MLIS program. I hope, however, to continue this blog beyond this semester as a vehicle for exploring ideas about libraries and librarianship. My professional interests include, but are not limited to, the following: intellectual freedom, government information, information literacy/fluency, instruction, Web 2.0 and Library 2.0, and, especially, the future of libraries. As an aspiring librarian, my purpose is to facilitate access to ideas, art and knowledge that empower, challenge, engage and entertain.

A wending and winding path has led me to pursue librarianship as a career. Previously, I have worked in a call center for a direct mail company, first selling music over the phone, later supervising and training a team of 24 people. I then worked in inventory management for the same company. I spent one excruciating and formative year as a secretary at the University. I got a BA in English Literature. Betwixt and between all of this, I have worked as a bookseller and buyer for four different bookstores: an excellent, large independent bookstore in New England; a specialty children's bookstore; a science fiction and fantasy bookstore; and, a bookstore at a small university. I absolutely love working for bookstores, and not just because I am a bibliophile. It took me a long while, especially since I consider myself a shy person, but I eventually figured out that what I love most about working in bookstores is the people. My bookstore colleagues have generally been super smart, somewhat eccentric, fascinating people who are enthusiastically engaged in the world of ideas, which they are dedicated to sharing with as many people as possible. It is a kind of evangelism, really, wanting to wallow in ideas and then share them with everyone. And, I love working with bookstore customers, the challenge of accurately discerning what they seek, connecting them with it, and perhaps even turning them onto something new and unexpected that they love, whether that be a reference book, a literary novel, or pulp fiction. I also strongly believe that information is power and that art is transfiguring (in a good way). So, I eventually figured out that, as a librarian, I could indulge in all of this, plus get benefits and have an actual career path.

When I began this Internet fundamentals class, I had no real experience creating Web sites, but was instead a mere user and consumer. I had used Dreamweaver and Contribute to update existing Web sites, but had never created any code from scratch. My knowledge of RSS was minimal, although I do have a large number of subscriptions to various blogs via Bloglines. All of the skills and knowledge we are acquiring in this class are new to me (e.g., html, xhtml, frames, table, CSS, etc.). Now, I have created my first little blog and will soon create my first actual Web site. I'm looking forward to continuing this blog as a way to record and explore ideas about libraries, librarianship and the wider world.